» Saddled with debt: The bidding group, led by former NBA star-turned-entrepreneur Magic Johnson, is about to set a record for the most expensive team purchase in history, topping a $1.1 billion 2008 buyout of the Miami Dolphins and a $1.47 billion buyout of Manchester United in 2005. (Well, a federal bankruptcy court still needs to approve the sale.) The team, currently owned by Frank McCourt, declared bankruptcy in June of last year after admitting the team has $600 million in outstanding debt. McCourt had to sell the franchise partly because of an expensive divorce, and was told by a court in December that he could not sell the team’s media rights, leading to his sale of the team. But he’s still making out like a bandit — even considering that he has to cover the debt on the team’s sale, he spent just $330 million to buy the team eight years ago, along with another $100 million to build the team’s current stadium.
20 years ago Monday, Magic Johnson told the world he had HIV. At the time, the disease had an expiration date — one that millions of people have died fighting. Johnson, however, has managed to beat the odds, thanks to medical breakthroughs. Not that it was an easy announcement at the time — even for a man of his celebrity and good-guy stature, it required some walking on eggshells. ”I knew I was going to suffer,” he says. “But if this could help someone else who was suffering, then I would do it.” But in the end, Johnson’s reputation won out, allowing him to use his celebrity to encourage funding for research into stopping the disease for everyone — not just him. The L.A. Times has a couple of great stories up about Magic. Read them both. They’re worth it.
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